Support assembly for a shaft

ABSTRACT

A support assembly for a shaft disposed within an apparatus is disclosed including a support wall in which is mounted a bearing support member. The support wall is provided within an orifice through which the shaft extends, the orifice being dimensioned to provide a clearance of at least one-eighth inch therebetween. The bearing support member is provided with a bearing means which receives the shaft in journalled relationship.

[ Apr. 2, 1974 United States Patent Moore Nickle et al.

[ SUPPORT ASSEMBLY FOR A SHAFT [75] Inventor:

Primary ExaminerCharles J. Myhre Assistant ExaminerBarry Grossman Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Mam & Jangarathis [73] Assignee:

[22] Filed:

[57] ABSTRACT A support assembly for a shaft disposed within an apparatus is disclosed including a support wall in which [21] Appl. No.: 281,393

308 15 Fl6c 35%) is mounted a bearing support member. The support 308/15. 259/DlG 16 109 wall is provided within an orifice through which the shaft extends, the orifice being dimensioned to pro- [52] U.S. Cl. [51] Int. Cl.

[58] Field of Search vide a clearance of at least one-eighth inch therebetween. The bearing support member is provided with a References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS lO/l97l bearing means which receives the shaft in joumalled relationship.

3,613,603 Reisman 308/15 2,884,283 4/1959 Korol ct 308/IS 9 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures TMENTEB APR 2 I974 SHEEI 3 OF 3 Fig. 4.

SUPPORT ASSEMBLY FOR A SHAFT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates in general to a support assembly, and more particularly to an easily cleanable support assembly for a shaft for equipment handling particulate material, such as food, drugs and the like that requires sanitation in cleaning.

For the food handling equipment, such as screw conveyors, bucket elevators and the like, consideration must be given not only to the materials of construction, but also to the sanitary design thereof for maintaining clean equipment as well as to facilitate the cleaning of such equipment thereby controlling and preferably eliminating product contamination. From the standpoint of cleaning, food handling equipment may be generally grouped into equipment which are cleanedin-place and equipment which is dismantled. With regard to equipment which is cleaned-in-place, the equipment must be designed so that cleaning procedures result in the same or greater degree of cleaning effectiveness as that achieved by dismantled cleaning procedures. Thus, sanitizing solution must circulate throughout and contact all interior surfaces of fixed equipment with self-cleaning capabilities.

Bearing assemblies, usually of flanged type or sleeve type design, for food handling equipment are generally located outside the product zone with a seal being provided at the entrance of the shaft into the product zone of the equipment, for example, as illustrated in US. Pat. No. 3,203,109. Sufficient access is provided to readily permit removal of the seal assembly for ease of cleaning and inspection. Additionally, the bearing seals must be installed and maintained to prevent lubricant leakage or entrance of product into the seal and/or bearing assembly. It has been found, however, that such seal and bearing assemblies are generally unsatisfactory and that lubricant and/or product leakage occurs with the result of high bacterial build-up in bearing assemblies in the latter instance.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These and other objects of the invention are obtained by providing a support assembly for a shaft of an apparatus comprised of a bearing support member positioned on the outer surface of a support wall including an orifice or aperture. A bearing is mounted on the outer surface of the bearing support member and in alignment with the aperture through which the shaft of the apparatus extends in joumalled relationship with the bearing. The dimension of the shaft with reference to the dimension of the shaft aperture in the support wall of the apparatus is greater than about one-eighth inch, preferably at least about one-fourth inch, thereby permitting the ready passage therethrough of a sanitizing solution. The minimum distance between the outer surface of the support wall and the inner surface of the bearing support member is selected to prevent accumulation of materials therebetween during processing or the cleaning operation, generally at least about 14%.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A better understanding of the present invention as well as other objects and advantages thereof will become apparent uportconsideration of the detailed disclosure thereof, especially when taken with the accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals designate like parts throughout, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional plane view of a screw type conveyor assembly including the support assembly for a shaft illustrating the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a left side view of the conveyor assembly with flange bearing therefor;

FIG. 3 is a right side view of the conveyor assembly without a flange bearing therefor; FIG. 4 is a partial plane view of another embodiment of the invention including a bucket elevator assembly provided with a support assembly of the present invention; and 4 FIG. 5 is a top view of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 3, there is illustrated a conveyor assembly, generally indicated as 10,.to receive and convey a food product, such as a dried paste flake, from a double drum dryer, e.g.,'as disclosed in the hereinbefore mentioned Letters Patent. The conveyor assembly 10 is comprised of an intermediate wall 12, an end wall 14 and a semi-cylindrical bottom 16 disposed therebetween and mounted on a support leg or stanchion 18. It is understood that the conveyor assembly 10 may be provided with two or more support legs and may be provided with a roller device 20 to permit the assembly tobe displaced from associated machinery.

The end plates 12 and 14 are formed with apertures 22 and 24, respectively, through which extends a shaft 26 of the conveyor assembly 10. The shaft is illustrated as being hollow, enclosed at each end by machined end members 28 and 30 affixed thereto, such as by welding. The conveyor shaft 26 is provided with a plurality of flights 32 to move the product, e.g., from left to right in FIG. I. g V i Mounted on the intermediate wall 12, such as by welding, is a' U-shaped motor drive support member, generally indicated as 34, comprised of arms 36 and an intermediate arm 38, with the intermediate arm 38 being provided with an aperture 40. A gear-motor assembly, generally indicated as 42, is mounted on the intermediate arm 38 of the bracket member 34 and suitably engages shaft 26 for rotation. Other forms of drive assemblies may be used, such as a sprocket and chain drive, e.g., as illustrated in the hereinabove mentioned U.S. Letters Patent.

A U-shaped bearing support, generally indicated as 44, comprised of arms 46 and an intermediate arm 48, are affixed to the outer portion of end wall 14, such as by welding. An orifice 50 is provided in the intermediate arm 48 thereof through which extends the terminal portion of member 30 of the shaft 26. A flange bearing 52 is mounted, such as by bolts 54 on the outer portion of the intermediate arm 48 of the member 46 and receives in journalled relationship end member 30 of the shaft 26. The bottom 16 of the conveyor assembly is provided with a chute, generally indicated as 50 to permit discharge of the material from the conveyor 10, such as to another conveyor assembly A U-shaped bearing support member, generally indicated as 56, comprised of end arms 58 and intermediate arm 60 is mounted on an outer portion of the intermediate wall 12, such as by welding. The intermediate arm 60 is provided with a slot 62 to facilitate disassembly of the apparatus. A bearing 64 is mounted, such as by bolts (not shown) on an outer portion of the intermediate arm 60 and receives said shaft in joumalled relationship. lt is understood that the bearing 64 is not required provided that the motor assembly 42 is provided with suitable bearing means.

The orifices 22 and 24 in the walls 12 and 14 are dimensioned to provide a clearance of at least one-eighth inch, preferably one-quarter inch, with the exterior surface of the shaft 26 to permit the ready flow of a sanitizing solution therebetween thereby to insure thorough cleaning of the area thereabout. It is noted that the conveyor assembly 10 is disposed at a slight angle from the horizontal to provide for drainage of a sanitizing solution.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is illustrated conveyor assembly 10 with the discharge chute 50 thereof disposed above a receiving orifice 64 of an elevator assembly, generally indicated as 80. The elevator assembly is comprised of a semi-cylindrical bottom 82 supported by an adjustable stanchion 83, which bottom 82 is mounted to a vertically standing rectangular shaped housing, generally indicated as 84, comprised of opposed walls 86 and walls 88. A U-shaped bearing support member, generally indicated as 90, comprised of arms 92 and an intermediate arm 94 is mounted such as by bolts 96, through a support plate 98 in wall 86 opposite the wall 86 on which-the bottom 82 is disposed. The bearing support member 90 is provided with a flange bearing 100 mounted on the intermediate arm 94 of the bearing support member 90 such as by bolts 102.

The elevator assembly 80 is provided with a conveyor shaft 126 having flights, generally indicated as 128, and enclosed at one end by an elongated end member 132 extending through an orifice 104 formed in the wall 88 and support plate 98 and is journalled for rotation in the flange bearing 100. The orifice 104 is dimensioned to provide a clearance of at least one-eighth inch, preferably one-quarter inch with regard to the diameter of the end member 132 of the shaft 126 as hereinabove described with reference to the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 3. A sprocket 106 is affixed to the end member 132 of the shaft 126 for engaging an endless bucket assembly (not shown) as is known to those skilled in the art.

While the present invention has been described with reference to a conveyor assembly and a bucket elevator, it is understood that the invention is not only applicable to material handling equipment such as flakers, but also to equipment where a material is subject to a unit process wherein sanitary conditions are desired and/or wherein material is subjected to abrasive or rubbing action (explosives), e.g., shaft support assembly for a drum dryer, and a shaft is apart of the equipment assembly. Additionally, while described with reference to equipment handling dry particulate material, i.e., tomato paste flakes withdrawn from a flaker, the invention is applicable to equipment handling of wetter particulate material. The orifice through which the shaft extends in the side wall is illustrated as being circular, however, other configurations may be used, e.g., polygonals provided the hereinabove described dimensional relationship obtains. Additionally, the bearing support assembly is illustrated as being U-shaped, however, other shapes may be used depending on load factors, e.g., an L-shaped assembly having one arm mounted above the orifice and extending outwardly with the other arm including the bearing extending downwardly therefrom. Any form of a bearing assembly may be used, however, for lubricated type of bearings, the support assembly should be at least about 2 inches from the support wall to permit the use of a slinger ring, generally indicated as 27 in FIG. 1. Generally, it is contemplated that the shaft is to be supported at each end by the shaft support assembly herein described, however, for certain application it is possible that one support assembly may be used.

While the invention has been described in connection with exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood that many modifications will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art; and that this application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations thereof. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that this invention be only limited by the claims'and the equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for handling particulate material wherein a shaft including an operational means disposed within the apparatus is rotated therein, an improved support assembly for said shaft which comprises:

a support wall having an orifice provided therein through which said shaft extends, said orifice being dimensioned to provide a clearance of at least about one-eighth inch therebetween;

a bearing support member mounted on said support wall including a portion thereof spaced apart from 1 said support wall, said bearing support means being mounted on a side of said support wall opposite said operational means of said apparatus; and

a bearing means mounted on said portion of said bearing support for receiving said shaft in journalled relationship.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft is supported by at least two support assemblies.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said arm portion of said bearing support member is provided with an orifice through which said shaft extends.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said bearing support means is comprised of a U-shaped member including end arms and an intermediate arm, each of said end arms being mounted to said support wall.

5. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said support wall is an end wall of conveyor assembly.

6. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said support wall is a wall of a bucket elevator.

9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8 wherein said bearing means is lubricated and wherein a slinger ring is mounted on said shaft between said support wall and said bearing means. 

1. In an apparatus for handling particulate material wherein a shaft including an operational means disposed within the apparatus is rotated therein, an improved support assembly for said shaft which comprises: a support wall having an orifice provided therein through which said shaft extends, said orifice being dimensioned to provide a clearance of at least about one-eighth inch therebetween; a bearing support member mounted on said support wall including a portion thereof spaced apart from said support wall, said bearing support means being mounted on a side of said support wall opposite said operational means of said apparatus; and a bearing means mounted on said portion of said bearing support for receiving said shaft in journalled relationship.
 2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft is supported by at least two support assemblies.
 3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said arm portion of said bearing support member is provided with an orifice through which said shaft extends.
 4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said bearing support means is comprised of a U-shaped member including end arms and an intermediate arm, each of said end arms being mounted to said support wall.
 5. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said support wall is an end wall of conveyor assembly.
 6. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said support wall is a wall of a bucket elevator.
 7. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said bearing means is a flange bearing.
 8. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said arm means is disposed greater than about two inches from said support wall.
 9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8 wherein said bearing means is lubricated and wherein a slinger ring is mounted on said shaft between said support wall and said bearing means. 